Category: Project

In other news, my friend Vibushan appeared in a couple of newspapers. His project apparently is path breaking stuff. ( Talk about redifining the definition of path breaking.) 😉 But that’s not what we are going to discuss here. Here I present a couple of pictures one of which appeared in a vernacular newspaper and another which appeared in a national newspaper. Spot (just one) difference(s):

That’s the difference between vernacular and English newspapers. (If you could identify it that is.) That’s the difference you are subjected to when you choose a vernacular newspaper or a news channel in favour of a English news channel. (Not all though. Some English news channels are just as bad.)

Oh, and congrats Vibu. It’s a huge deal and all of us (who know you and am sure who don’t know you (yet) are proud of you). 🙂

Bad news guys. After almost a week after staying away from the blog, I am back. Sorry for all of you who thought and expected the break to last longer. If any consolation, I shall be writing lesser crap now. So cheer up. 🙂

Done with Engineering:

Graduate Now

What prompted me to write the post is that I am finally done with Engineering. Can you believe it ? I can’t. My performance in the last semester has been abysmal. That was only expected, with me spending most of my time on the project (which seemed meaningful except, we were evaluated for 20 marks!! Everyone gets a 180 irrespective of what they did or did not do. Sad) A couple of my friends (from other departments) managed to get 200. I am happy for them and sad for myself. I was left three bloody marks short. But then I have reasons to feel good. After all Shiva (the God of coding 😉 ) got only 195 or so, while his batch mates form other departments got 200.

Evaluation (or the lack of it):

I don’t think they even evaluated our papers. To back this claim, first, I passed the exams!! Second, every Tom, Dick and Harry has a 90 plus in all subjects (except me.) and third, no one in my class who didn’t have any arrears at the end of seventh semester flunked. I think the AU people just threw papers into pre-marked mark zones with a blindfold on.

No, matter what, I am Engineer now. And what’s more ? I got thorugh without any arrears in the 8 semesters, Which means I also pass with distinction. 🙂 Nice. Now to bigger and better things in life.

So, turns out I didn’t make the ISRO test. That kinda hit me hard. I am still trying to come to terms with it. I don’t know about the job, but it would have felt nice just to have cleared the test. But that didn’t happen. So now, instead I have to feel like shit. I know I am no Electronics God, but I know my basics and I can work out problems. I sure was rusty when I attended the test, having put no preparation in and that’s my fault. (It can attributed to a few other reasons too, but that’s not nice. It’s better to just accept it that you failed yourself.) What this also means is that I might have to now take up my Software job. 😦 The one last straw of hope I was clinging on to, is gone. That’s depressing isn’t it ? 😦

Project O2: (Which has nothing to do either with ISRO or O2 for that matter)

Anyway, I have been given a project to work on. At least something to cheer about. It’s nothing great, but if I have to make it fully functional, I’ll have to work on it a bit. (Maybe not as much as my Final Year Project, but considerable amount of work.) The best thing is, I might get paid a token amount if I complete it properly and on time. So, I am trying to keep myself in better spirits.

Break (No, not the Big Break!!)

That means except for the IPL posts which I have time stamped (just one line dumb posts), I don’t plan to blog for a while now. I would like to kick myself instead for being an a-hole and not doing my test well. So much for my Rocket Scientist dreams. Damn it!!

Finally did my project report somehow and got it signed too. I didn’t include the acknowledgement. Can’t claim to have set a trend 🙂 Just following the trend set by someone already there. It was questioned yes. I was asked why I did not include the acknowledgements. And later asked why I did not acknowledge even my parents or even God and what about the people that really helped me ? I usually reply with just a smile when I know anything I say will be used against me. 🙂 So, then I was told how proud I was of myself. (???) Hell, yea. I am. I got away with it, didn’t I ?

But, thinking about it, I did want to acknowledge a few people and maybe I will stick a page inside now that I have gotten it signed. The only reason I didn’t include it in the first place was I did’nt want to be asked why I acknowledged certain people and did not acknowledge my guide and all that crap. Here are the people who helped me out:

Pradeep Kanthan (IV Mechanical) , C Karthik (IV Mechanical) for their immense help and patience with the mechanical model of my project. They made me a mechanical model for my requirements for which I was prepared to pay upto Rs.10,000 for almost one tenth of that price. Also, thanks to Karthik for helping me out with my CAD model. Thanks guys.

Shivakeshavan (My senior in college and currently working in IITM) for his patience in listening my problems out even when he was clearly bugged with it. 🙂 He might not have spoon fed me or helped directly with anything in my project, but I am really thankful that he didn’t. You learn things only when you try and find solutions to the problems.

My brother, for his help with the electronics in my project.

Vibushan (IV CSE Amrita) and Vivek(IV CSE Amrita) for throwing light on databases and all that. Well, I did’nt end up doing what I wanted, but as Vibu puts it, “why are you (EEE guy) even working on/with databases ?” 🙂 (Dawgs, thank your stars. Psst, I am not telling anyone how you let me down. 😉 )

Abhi, for help with the printouts.

And last but not the least, everyone else who hasn’t bothered asking me what I am doing and then chipping in with what they think about it. Thanks a lot, but I really didn’t want the spotlight, nor your opinion. 😉

Well, I had to check certain sequences on an LED arrangement and my breadboard(s) were already cluttered. So I decided to make yet another (pseudo) PCB with 16 LED’s in it. I can use it for testing and stuff. Just like the things we have in our Labs where we test Digital IC’s.

I had this one board lying around since my first semester when I used it to check the characteristics of diode and BJT’s. Sadly, only now I realised that it’s meant only for that. I had no tracks on the board. Which meant I had to use those many more wires. Dumb of me isn’t it ? Well, I decided to test my circuit at around 23:00 and by then the shops would be closed. 😦

I do not wish to thank the <funny title> Chairman, the <funnier title> Chairwoman , the <Not so funny any longer title> Secretary, the <Degree that has no relevance to the post> Director, the <totally irrelevant> Producer for not being involved in any remote possible way with my project, for also not contributing so much as an iota to the project. (If I may add, they were no more supports to me than my behind. Actually, thinking about it, my behind is hell a lot more support. 😉 )

I do not with to thank my HOD, because I don’t think I have seen him/her more than twice this semester. I could thank the bus driver more. At-least he ensures I travel to college and get back home safely and I see him everyday.

I however thank my Project guide for at-least not being a hindrance and a constant source of annoyance and irritation. Thanks a lot sir/madam. Even if you did not contribute much, at-least you did not try and impose the thoughts conceived in your sesame sized brain, on me.

I want to thank Lord Almighty because of the fear that things might not work as inhtended on the final day, otherwise. (I am God fearing. OK, this is not sarcasm either. Just being matter of fact.)

Well, here are some pics of my PCB. Worst PCB ever!! Yet, I have to make do with it. 😦 Sad isn’t it ?

It’s the most pathetic board I have ever seen. At first glance, it misses your naked eye, but on closer inspection or when using your Multimeter, you find out that all the traces that are not supposed to be in contact are in-fact touching. Sadly for me, I noticed this after having soldered a couple of IC’s in. For a while I thought the problem was with the solder itself. After several attempts to set it right, I had a hunch that the tracks itself could be touching each other. And man, was my hunch right. Almost every track was touching the other track!! And I had to use a Swiss Army Knife to remove the copper between tracks 😦 Imagine!!

(IC’s in place)

(IC’s and a few wires. Takes longer than you can imagine)

(Flipsyde)

The original idea was to make my own PCB. But I couldn’t find my drilling machine and to be honest, it involves a lot more effort. I would have used a breadboard, but then one of my IC’s refused to sit in it.

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I am Karthik.Welcome to my blog. All of the content on my blog are my own opinions,ideas and crazy notions. It has absolutely nothing to do with my past, present and future employers. My opinions in no way represent the opinions and ideologies of my organization(s). So if at all you decide to file a lawsuit, it will have to be against me, and I assure you, I am bankrupt.

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Moi

I am an Electrical and Electronics Engineer by qualification and used to work as a Systems/Software Engineer. I left that job to pursue a Master's Degree in Electronics, (back to square one, I know) and after two years of toil, graduated and have been working as an Engineer in the field of semiconductors, since.
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